The Peripheral (The Jackpot Trilogy)

I have a confession to make. I've never read NEUROMANCER. I was one of those who had to be pulled kicking and screaming into the cyberpunk era. I didn't want to read cyberpunk at all. Not only didn't I read NEUROMANCER, but I didn't read the other really big cyberpunk novel of the day, Neal Stephenson's SNOW CRASH. I wanted my space ships, I wanted my aliens, I wanted my galactic space opera. What the heck was this cyberpunk stuff, and why was it getting in my science fiction? I swore I was never going to like cyberpunk. I read Gibson's COUNT ZERO and VIRUAL LIGHT. I read Stephenson's THE DIAMOND AGE. I decided I didn't like the style OR the subject matter. Heck, I even tried to read THE DIFFERENCE ENGINE, by both Sterling and Gibson, and I decided that steampunk (yes, that was steampunk, but no one seems to credit it that way these days, at least not that I hear) was a waste of my time too. That was 30 years ago. Times change. People change. Writers change. Genres change. I don't mind reading steampunk these days - I feel that some of it is really pretty good. I absolutely loved ANATHEM by Neal Stephenson, although I generally don't read his books because they are monstrous doorstops that I don't have time for. And I tried Gibson again. THE PERIPHERAL was being talked about on podcasts, in blogs, and everywhere else that I pay attention to in the field. It was getting good reviews, and it was being hailed as "Gibson's return to undeniable science fiction". I was dubious of that last statement, as I didn't think anything else he wrote was science fiction, so how can he return to it? But as I said, things change. And since this was the year I was going to get ahead of the game by reading novels that would assuredly be on the Hugo ballot, I figured I would give it a try (and as far as getting ahead of the game, well, we all know how THAT turned out). And wouldn't you know, I liked it. THE PERIPHERAL takes place in a not too distant future. Well, I should rephrase that. It takes place in two futures: one not too distant, and one a century or so further on. The near-ish future, in America, or some form of it, is a bit of a mess. There's the drug trade, an updated version of what the reader presumes is WalMart, and a very bleak economy. The further along future that we see is in London, after an event called The Jackpot had killed off a great portion of the world's population. We begin in the near future. Flynne lives with her brother Burton and her mother. Burton is a military veteran who suffers from trauma he suffered while serving in the U.S. Military. He is getting aid from the U.S. government because he's not supposed to be able to work. He has, however, found a job beta testing some video game software for a Colombian outfit called Coldiron. One day he goes off to be part of a protest group against a religious organization, and asks Flynne to cover for him on the job for a few days. His job in the game is that of security. He tells Flynne to keep an eye on a particular tower and fend off little nano-paparazzi type devices. However, on the second day of the job she witnesses a murder, and something doesn't seem quite right to her about it. And off we go into the story. THE PERIPHERAL is a murder mystery, pure and simple. Well, maybe not so pure and simple, since we *are* talking a) science fiction, and b) science fiction by William Gibson. It's probably not too much of a spoiler to say that the murder was in the future, a future life is also stark and bleak - never mind just a bit weird - due to The Jackpot. One of the devices that the future has is some sort of mysterious server, built by the Chinese (but never really visited in detail or explained at all in the book) that allows residents of that future to travel back and interact with various different pasts, which may or may not be their own past (It really is all a bit wonky but kind of cool. I didn't let myself get too distracted by the lack of details or even the not quite understanding of how pasts and that particular future relate. It was better that way.), call "stubs". People who do that are called "continua enthusiasts", and while in the novel we don't much deal with them, the people we deal with do have to go back to the past to try and figure out what they can about the murder that took place. I'll tell you what - this is a really cool story with some really neat concepts. While the idea of telling a story that takes place in two separate times is not new, the way of the two timelines interacting with each other is new - at least to me. Yeah, it's a bit of "hand-wavium", but hand-wavium is a time honored tradition in our field, and it is acceptable some times and not in others. I think it works well here. The future is populated with a bunch of interesting - at least to me - characters, including an investigator, Lowbeer, who reminds me a lot of Paula Myo from Peter F. Hamilton's novels. The novel is not without its faults, minor though they be. The first 100 pages or so (yes, I looked while I was listening to the audiobook) were a bit of a slog to get through. Gibson introduces new terminology that makes readers scratch their heads for awhile until they figure out just what it is he is talking about (although it could be argued that a science fiction reader, especially one who reads Gibson, should not only be used to it by now, but shouldn't need anything spelled out for them anyway), and it does take awhile to figure out that Gibson is switching back and forth between two timelines. However, once all that stuff is squared away and the reader figures out the basics, the story moves along at a pretty good pace, and is a good read. The conclusion was, for me, satisfying. Gibson wraps everything up fairly nicely with a little bow, which is something many writers don't do these days (although it can be argued that this is a standalone novel - for which I am grateful - and he darn well should tie things up nicely). As far as the narration goes, well, I didn't think anyone was going to top R.C. Bray, the narrator of THE MARTIAN. I was wrong. Lorelei King was magnificent. She handled the voices of the different characters terrifically, in my opinion. The pacing was terrific, and I loved the accent. She didn't intrude upon the story; rather, she enhanced it from the very beginning. I would hope I run across her in other audiobooks I listen to in the future. NEUROMANCER was one of those novels that comes along once a generation that changes the face of the field of science fiction, at least that's what I'm told. I will have to go back and read it, 30+ years after the fact. THE PERIPHERAL is not that kind of novel, but it doesn't have to be. It just is what it is - a terrific book.

I was a late discoverer of Gibson, but happened upon his existing body of work at just the right time in my 20's to be profoundly swept into the poetry of his wordsmithing and edginess of his entrancing creative vision. The Sprawl trilogy was like that first swig of redbull. That first plunge into the cold wave. It didn't just describe a future, it grasped the sheer potential of the nascent digital revolution and swung counter culture edginess honed to razor sharpness with so much creative force that it scored a notch into reality itself. Life did imitate art. "Cyberspace" happened. The Bridge trilogy which followed was more solidly anchored in the world we know; bustling with life, more focused on how that other cyberspace world touches and overlaps with our own, how they complement each other, distinctions eventually breaking down, as in Idoru. We see more stories about people getting by, one way and the other, in the crazy world ours just might become. An older and more reflective Gibson wrote the Bigendian trilogy. He had lived more years in this world, seen the times come to a fork in the future and not go down a path like that of which he wrote. The future is no longer the Sprawl, no longer neo-Tokyo, no longer jacked in, drugged up, surviving in stitchpunk colonies on a broken bridge or lounging in the edgiest of designer clubs, but Gibson had found it, hiding, becoming, here and there in our midst, and written of those who walked those unseen paths just out of sight of our daily commute. *mild spoilers, should not affect your experience with the novel* This book is none of those things. I found it a bit unsettling, as if Gibson has lost faith in the future. In one timeline the future almost doesn't matter; in the other it only happens because of a (rather strained and undeveloped, as if Gibson recognizes the details are ultimately unimportant) protracted global cataclysm from which a minority are to adapt and survive. But I think I understand what's happening. I believe Gibson is making peace with his upbringing. Some of you will know that Gibson grew up in rural Appalachia, in a small town that was, in his own words, "a place where modernity had arrived to some extent but was deeply distrusted." Finding the atmosphere stifling and seeking refuge in sci-fi, this creative rebellion led Gibson to immerse himself in counter culture, which we see very strongly coming out in the Bridge trilogy. In The Peripheral we've gone back to rural Appalachia, not much changed from today, in some ways not much changed from Gibson's childhood, with its drug-based local economy, and returning veterans the worse for wear but making do; beloved mama on meds, slowly aging; "the boys" getting themselves into trouble but always ready to help others out of it; fried eggs in the local diner. Camo. I believe Gibson, well past his rebellious years and with the wisdom that comes with age, has delved into his oldest memories and painted a loving picture of the environments and people of his youth, with all their virtues and flaws, in a place where the future only trickles in, can only touch the outside of things. Those in the future looking back at it can only shake their heads, wondering that such a time was. Perhaps Gibson, peering all the way back over 3 magnificent trilogies, does too. There are occasionally moments of the Gibson of old; the first chapter when he describes the trailer is strong with that particular flavor, and serves as a kind of bridge from the Bigendian trilogy. Some portions of the farther-future timeline are compelling, like the Medici, and gratifyingly unsettling, like the Pacific garbage-patch world and its denizens. But there are chapters where one feels that his heart's simply not in it and he's moving through the plot, solidly but not masterfully. It's a good book, but feels more like something co-written by Gibson might be. It rallies a bit by the end; overall I was softly let down. But maybe that's what Gibson is sensing about the future these days... a quiet exhaustion, a vague sense that times are bad and worse times are inexorably approaching, but in the mean time life going on after the hangovers from all tomorrow's parties have subsided.

「ペリフェラル ～接続された未来～ シーズン1 」が設定といい内容といい、とても素晴らしく、面白かったので物凄くシーズン２を制作してもらいたいのですが、どうもそれは無さそうなので、是非ともこの原書の日本語翻訳版を発売してもらいたいです！！ どこにお願いすればいいのか解りませんが、とにかくこの原書を日本語翻訳版で読みたいので、是非！日本語翻訳版を発売して下さい、心の底からの願いです、よろしくお願いいたします！！m(_ _)m

... pero no es lo que uno ve en la serie de TV, pese a la publicidad. La versión de TV es una variación muy corta de lo que tiene el libro, pero despeja varias dudas que la serie de TV deja. El estilo de escritura es particularmente... coloquial (lo compré en inglés, versión Kindle y llevada al Kobo... :-) ).

Gibson does what he does best and that is high octane cyberadventure that makes the reader enjoy the whole adventure

Haven't start reading. But I received the book with damaged edges and creased corner. Seems like it was used or on display.

Gibson is the gold standard. No regrets buying this.